It'd
be easy to declare that Spurs are in a crisis. A lot of fans would
want to hear that and believe it. After today's defeat to Norwich,
you could sell a Spurs fan anything that says 'We're doomed.' Except
that we're not. Today's game just showed that when Ledley King has
the rare horrible outing, we've got no chance. The exact opposite of
why the team doesn't lose when he's on top of his game which is
almost all of the time.
And
that's got me worried a little, because I've never seen Ledley
perform badly. I've gotten too used to his invincibilty. Today he
looked tired and nervous up against Grant Holt when he's bossed
around better strikers than him. He should have been taken off at
half time for the sake of the team. If you ask me, he shouldn't have
started the game at all. Redknapp shouldn't have messed with the
Gallas-Kaboul partnership just when it was beginning to look good.
But I don't believe Ledley's career is finished. He's just had one
bad game. It's just too bad our best defender this season, Younes
Kaboul, had to go off injured, hope it's nothing too bad and he
returns at the weekend.
I'd
like to remind Kyle Walker that he's a defender and should be
concerned with mopping up his flank and leave the running around and
trickery to Aaron Lennon (bless him), our best player on the field
today. I blame Walker for the second goal, for backing off Ryan
Bennett and allowing him to shoot when he should have been dispossed
instantly. Walker kept putting in unncessary tackles near the panalty
box, giving Norwich chances to rattle our aleady nevry defending.
On
to midfield. Good to see Sandro on the bench where he belongs.
Hopefully, he won't come anywhere near the starting XI until he sorts
himself out. Somehow, I thought Redknapp underestimated Norwich
slightly by opting for Jake Livermore when he had Niko Kranjcar at
his disposal. I don't want to take anything away from Livermore's
defence-splitting pass that led to Defoe's goal but he didn't seem to
able to do much else.
Only
Luka Modric knows the answer to what happened to the Luka Modric of
last season. To be fair, he's working harder than ever but it's the
absence of creativity that has fans tearing their hair out. But flair
isn't the only thing he's missing the past two games. He's been
making simple errors, misplacing passes, both short ones and his
signature cross-field ones. Not something you'd expect from Modric.
Whatever it is, I hope he shakes it off.
It
was infuriating to watch Gareth Bale casually prod the ball goalwards
after good work from Modric and Lennon when he what he should have
done was to pick his spot an power it in. To be fair, he wasn't
terrible, he came the closest to winning us the match. His
near-misses were agonising. But I can sense just a little cockiness
creeping into his game. He still can't defend to save his life but
what really got to me today was that he just wouldn't track back to
help out the floundering defence.
What
we lacked today was inspiration, as was the case at Sunderland on
Saturday. We can't seem to do anything else when the opposition won't
allow us to play our swash-buckling game. The effort to think up an
alternative is clearly lacking. I won't question the commitment of
Walker, Modric and Bale but would like to know what's going on inside
their heads.
I
love Harry Redknapp but I can't understand his choices at times. To
begin with, what is Loius Saha doing in the starting lineup and
topscorer Jermiane Defore on the bench? The man's finally found his
scoring form and you respond to that by playing him only when you
don't have a choice? Saha hasn't done anything to deserve to start
ahead of Defoe. Which brings me to Giovanni dos Santos.
Just
what he did to fall foul of Redknapp nobody knows. Redknapp must come
clean on dos Santos because he'll neither play him nor let him leave.
To top it all, dos Santos is expected to digest this load to shit,
“You have a future at the club.” He has as much a future at
Tottenham as Wolves do in the Premier League this season. You know
the answer to that. He's proved his quality whenever he's started and
doesn't deserve to be a spectator. Daniel Levy and Redknapp have got
to let him leave without trying to make money off of him. But there's
as much chance of that happening as there is of Mario Balotelli
signing up for behaviour-correction therapy. You can answer that one
too. I'll never forgive Redknapp for wasting dos Santos and wrecking
his career.
Ditto
Niko Kranjcar. He's another man I feel very sorry for. He's shown to
be capable of playing almost anywhere in midfield and should have
been the automatic replacement for Tom Huddlestone. Kranjcar is
unlucky that Parker, Modric, Livermore and Sandro (sigh) have pushed
him out. But like dos Santos, he should be allowed to move to another
club and revive his career. It would be criminal if he loses his
place in the Croatia squad for Euro 2012.
There's
got to be a summer exodus starting with those two. I wouldn't be
surprised if Defoe hands in a transfer request too, seeing how he's
been treated this season even after he brought a touch of
respectability to the scoreline against Manchester United last month.
I just can't understand what the three of them need to do to prove
that they can perform better and score more than the nutters
occupying their places. And since answers aren't forthcoming, they
should be released. Time is also up for Hurelho Gomes, Sebastian
Bassong and sadly, Jermaine Jenas seeing as they're never going to
start again. Let them go and start from scratch, you've left yourself
no other option.
It's
also important to hold on to Modric and Bale for witbhout them, we're
going to back to being nobodies. Maybe they just need convincing that
Spurs won't ever again flatter to decieve. Winning the FA Cup would
be a good way to do that. This is the best chance we've got since
Pompey (rightly languishing in the middle of nowhere) stole it from
us three seasons ago.
Saha
must go and so must Adebayor, if retaining him means smashing out
wage structure, he's not bigger than the club and certainly not
sensational. Can't have him disappear during the big games. This is
the best time to bring in the Academy boys. One of Redknapp's major
successes has been grooming young players and Walker, Livermore and
Danny Rose (to a lesser extent) have flourished in the senior team.
Time to open the door wider and let in Andros Townsend, Harry Kane
and Steven Caulker. I'm sure Redknapp would love to be remembered as
the man who revived the Academy. The end of speculation on his own
future would also help. We need to know if he's seriously considering
the national call-up.
If
we want to get something out of this season we'll have to do it the
hard way now. Arsenal are not going to slip up and that coupled with
our own self-destruction means that third place is going rapidly out
of reach. Even better, Chelsea and Newcastle have closed in on us
which means we'll have to hang on to Champions League football by the
skin of our teeth.
In
better news, we're on the right side of the excruciaitngly slow
process of realising our potential. A third straight season in fourth
or fith place is the kind of consistency we've missed sorely. A
stable manager and consistent finishes around that part of the table
will take us on the slow climb to the top. Until then, COME ON YOU
SPURS!
And
yeah, this week, SPURS ARE ON THEIR WAY TO WEMBLEY, so watch out
Chelsea and give us everything you got. GLORY GLORY TOTTENHAM
HOTSPUR!
